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Walk into a polling station in Belford Roxo, an impoverished city on the fringes of Rio de Janiero, on October 5 and you will be faced with an historic choice. You could vote for Alcides Rolim, the Workers' Party mayoral candidate promising a "city for all" or Elizeu Pitorra, a local communist who believes it is "time for a change". Most voters, however, will probably opt for Barack Obama, a 39-year-old Brazilian who, until recently, was known as Claudio Henrique dos Anjos.

Welcome to Obama-mania, Brazil-style. Few countries have embraced the idea of the US's first black president as enthusiastically as Brazil, a country with one of the largest Afro-descendant populations on Earth yet where black faces remain a minority in politics. Obama T-shirts are everywhere while chat shows and newspaper columns are filled with talk of the 47-year-old Illinois senator.

Most of those Brazilians are partway through Sex Change operations to re make themselves into woman so that they can dance in the Samba contests during Mardi Gras !

Brazil: Government to pay for sex change operations

Brazil’s Health Ministry announced last Friday that the government will provide free sex change operations. The decision was based on a federal court verdict that concluded that gender-change operations are a constitutional right.

Brazilian gay rights activists supported the ministry’s choice:

"Transsexuals represent about 0.001 percent of the Brazilian population, but for this minority, sexual reassignment surgery is a question of life and death," said Luiz Mott, founder of the Bahia Gay Group. "It is unjust and cruel to argue that the health system should concern itself with other priorities."

Brazil's public health system has been at the forefront of AIDS treatment and very vocal on providing free contraception and decriminalizing abortion. Such measures have not been without controversy; for example, Catholic Church officials were deeply opposed to the government giving away free condoms during Carnaval(Mardi Gras).